HGO Studio takes in 5 young artists

Houston Grand Opera has picked three young singers and two pianists to join its training program, HGO Studio, next season.
HGO received applications from 641 aspiring performers, and its staff heard more than 200 of them in auditions in Houston, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and San Francisco. The five taken into the program, where they’ll join seven returning from last season, are:Uliana Alexyuk, soprano: Alexyuk has been a featured soloist since 2010 at the Bolshoi Theater in Russian, where she has performed in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” Vincenzo Bellini’s “La Sonnambula,” Tchaikovsky’s “Iolanta” and other operas. This summer, she’ll perform at the Glyndebourne Festival in England.Thomas Richards, bass-baritone: A native of Burnsville, Minn., Richards is now studying at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He won first prize in HGO’s 2013 Eleanor McCollum Competition.Emily Senturia, pianist and coach: Based in San Francisco, Senturia has worked on the music staffs of opera productions at the Virginia Opera, Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, Rice University and other institutions. She had a fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and she spent three summers as a coaching fellow at the Aspen Music Festival.Reginald Smith Jr., baritone: A native of Atlanta, Smith has performed leading roles in operas including Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” Verdi’s “Falstaff” and “La Traviata,” Puccini’s “La Boheme,” and Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance.” In 2009, Smith traveled to the United Kingdom with the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre to perform in tandem with the European Jumping and Dressage Championships.Christopher Turbessi, pianist and coach: Turbessi, who studied collaborative piano at the University of Michigan, has helped prepare productions at the Virginia Opera, Syracuse Opera and Aspen Opera Theater Center. He was worked on operas ranging from Claudio Monteverdi’s “The Coronation of Poppea” to Andre Previn’s “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
“We believe that each of them has the potential and the drive to make a major contribution to this marvelous art form,” said Laura Canning, HGO Studio’s director, in a statement.
HGO Studio, one of the opera world’s top training programs, was founded in 1977 by David Gockley, then HGO’s general director, and composer Carlisle Floyd. The participants spend up to three years in the program, which gives them training in voice, movement and languages. They perform supporting roles in HGO’s mainstage productions, and they also take part in recitals and other performances of their own.— Steven Brown